


Wind and Current

by twelvefortyfive



Category: One Piece
Genre: Blurred Lines Between Friendship and Intimacy, Character Study, Different Kinds of Strength, Enigmatic Usopp, Friendship, Fusion, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Introspective Zoro, M/M, Multi, Nakamaship, Not Beta Read, Perceptive Sanji, Post-Time Skip, Rating May Change, Trust, Vulnerability
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-05-31 03:02:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19417150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twelvefortyfive/pseuds/twelvefortyfive
Summary: "You protect Luffy as much as he does you," Zoro says, and he's tired, but he hopes Usopp understands. "Your fusions are always like that. Loyal, watchful, stable, smarter.”It’s an outstretched hand in spirit, a courtesy he’d been afforded for years, and gotten much too used to. Zoro should’ve reassured the boy instead of callously asking for an intimacy that spooked both of them for entirely different reasons, even though Zoro knew he was still grasping for a read on someone he knew frustratingly well.I trust you so much I took for granted that trust has never come to you easy.-In which Zoro and Usopp realize being strong doesn't make you any less scared of being vulnerable.





	1. Chapter 1

Sanuso smokes in silence, but his hands are flighty with activity. 

Zoro watches him curiously, having heard of the crew's newest fusion several weeks prior but never encountering him before. It was rare for fusions to occur for the first time outside the heat of battle, at least for the swordsman. From what Nami had said, one moment the Sniper and Cook had been rough housing amicably in the waves while setting up nets beneath the ship and the next, a tall, lanky man had hauled himself starboard laughing so hard there were tears in all four of his eyes. That was just like Usopp, humor and fun and mischief infectious enough to entwine with the softhearted cook into someone new. Sanuso, as the man preferred to be called. He stood nearly a foot over Zoro and could look Franky in the eye, though his build was mostly slender—everywhere but the legs, which were as bunched with muscle as Sanji's, his skin a ruddy, golden tan. 

"Stop staring and lend a hand," the fusion suddenly calls out, glancing up to the precise window Zoro had been spying from. All four of Sanuso's dark eyes train on the swordsman's position with such accuracy, Zoro feels a strange prick at the base of his skull. It's animalistic, an immediate flight or fight response at having been caught with his guard down, and all Zoro can do is smile. Fascinating. 

By the time he scales down the crow's nest to join the fusion, it's clear Sanuso is being meticulous with how he pairs up the day's catch. 

"Is this a first impression introduction sort of thing or can I call you Nose-Brow and have it over with?" Zoro drawls, sidling up to the man and craning his neck up to look him in the eyes. Sanuso stared right back, the immediate sneer around his cigarette familiar enough to shake any strangeness from their first meeting. The bridge of his nose was long and sharp and his curly, bright hair looked soft as the wind tousled it. The cap he'd hauled on to keep his bangs at bay left curly brows and heavily lashed eyes visible for Zoro to see and he grinned, taking the man by the slender jaw none too gently. Sanuso, to his surprise, lets him, snorting as Zoro turned him this way then that, rubbed knuckles against the man's scruffy jaw as Zoro traced one of four eyelids with the pad of his thumb.

"Weird," is all he says in conclusion, and Sanuso shrugs, because he doesn't quite disagree. 

-

No matter which way he looks at it, Usopp's fused with every member of the crew but Zoro, a fact that puzzled the swordsman to no end ever since he'd come to the realization. Sanuso’s introduction to the Straw Hat crew—whether Zoro admitted it to himself or not—had stirred up a bothersome, childish sort of hurt he thought himself quite above. 

To be fair, most of the fusions between the crew and their first mate occurred during battle, and while Zoro was most deadly at the frontlines, Usopp's long range and massive target perimeter often meant he took to fighting wherever he could find a vantage point. And over the years, the Straw Hat crew had picked up on the fact fusing for leisure wasn’t really Zoro’s cup of tea. Privately, he’d argue it was more a matter of having a difficult time letting his guard down than it was an aversion to fusion itself, nuance his friends also came to understand with time. Said understanding came in the form of reaching out to the swordsman _first_ , and the pleasant warmth of having a piercing, dark eye acquiesce as Zoro outstretched his hand to meet his friends’. 

Rarely, if at all, did Zoro refuse a direct request to fuse from the members of his crew. 

Save for Chopper and Brook, whose fusion capabilities were still nebulously mysterious and incredibly rare, Zoro had _been there_ for his nakama when they needed him, or wanted to share an experience with him in the most vivid way the Straw Hats knew how.

Nami often took Zoro's hand and bound her spirit into his if they needed someone who could follow an island map and carry restocked supplies. 

Luffy loved to sling an arm around Zoro's shoulders and fuse with him unannounced, just for adventure and a good hunt. They wreaked havoc when coming together for battle.

Robin liked fusing with Zoro because he offered her a sense of freedom in the form of deep-sea diving and seeing the forbidden beauty of the world beneath the sea. A devil fruit user wouldn't be able to experience it any other way.

Sanji…even Sanji clasping Zoro’s arm in his and hauling their forms together for the sake of a common goal was hardly a rare occurrence. 

These mundane, easygoing encounters and bonds meant that when Usopp timidly mentioned wanting to dock on an island in sight, but being to nervous to do so alone, Zoro had held a hand out to him without hesitation.

"C'mon, I'm getting stir-crazy myself. Fuse with me, I'll watch your back and you watch mine."

It had been days and Zoro still couldn't understand the look Usopp had given him in response–surprise, maybe, but something else the swordsman couldn't quite place, especially because of how quickly Usopp had glanced away. He'd forced a light laugh like he had something to hide, tugging at his bandana self-consciously. 

"It's no big deal, Zoro, I could find those seeds at a bigger port anyhow. You don't have to go through the trouble."

He'd gone from drinking tea and sketching away on a pad to collecting his materials and balancing the steaming cup in another hand. Zoro had stared at him, outstretched hand falling back to his side as Usopp brushed past, seemingly off to his workshop. 

Almost in afterthought, the younger boy paused, boot propping the door open, as he turned to give Zoro a grin so suddenly genuine it made the swordsman even more confused.

"Thanks though, Zoro. I appreciate it, you know?"

He sidled out the door and didn't wait for an answer, though Zoro hadn't known what to say to Usopp's refusal.

Because that's what it was in the end, wasn't it? Zoro wouldn't have thought much of itat all if he hadn't seen Usopp tug at Sanji's sleeve later on that night after dinner, speaking in soft tones to the cook as he smoked. The conversation wasn't what Zoro found remarkable, but when Sanji held out his cigarette, Zoro already knew what was going to happen moments before it did. Usopp made a face but took a drag of the cigarette himself as Sanji ruffled his hair and stepped into him, past the kid's smoky exhale, until another man stood in both their places. 

Sanuso. Tall, slender, four hawk eyes and legs that leapt so far and so light he flew when he ran. The fastest of the fusions, the quietest, and one of the kindest despite his acerbic attitude. He caught Zoro's eye immediately, the hair on the back of the swordsman's neck prickling icy at the sensation of being so thoroughly sighted, like prey. 

But Sanuso looked at everyone like that. He grinned sharply, and being part Sanji, didn't expect Zoro to smile back. He disappeared over the edge of the Sunny with a nebulous _splish_ and didn't come back until the wee hours of the morning.

-

Zoro thinks of Water Seven as he meditates. Of a skinny, wounded boy who thought he’d never be enough even as he proved his worth over and over and over again from behind a broken mask.

Years have passed, and briefly, Zoro wonders if he’d been too harsh on him then. But the thought goes as quickly as it comes.

_Whether we’d dragged him out to sea all those years ago or not, he would’ve found his way. The skull and crossbones are in his blood. Why else would anyone face their wildest fears day after day if they didn’t love everything about the sea?_

-

"What were you and Usopp up to so late?" Luffy asks the next morning, and Sanji grins, an echo to that smile thrown Zoro's way the evening before. Zoro pretends like he isn't interested and sips at his sake while Sanji spreads out Sanuso's haul. 

"Seeds, all sorts, and a fantastic selection of herbs I'd only read about in recipe books. Hadn't realized we were in the region till Usopp brought it up, but he was looking for a _really_ specific plant."

Sanji smacked Luffy's hand away from the stash and gave him a hard look with before continuing. 

"This pile's good for ammo, but not the explosive kind? That's about as much as I learned when we put out heads together, asides what they looked like. I'm drying them out for him. Pretty flowers, but Sanuso knew they were dangerous, else he would've brought some for the vases in the girls' room. So _don’t_ eat them."

Luffy, visibly discouraged, rolled his eyes and muttered, "I'd rather eat a meat platter anyhow. What's the point of plants if they aren't good for food or medicine?"

Zoro's knuckles rap at the captain's temple in response, but lightly, all pretense of acting disinterested leaving with the last sip of his drink.

"Usopp knows what he's doing. I'm sure his latest invention will be useful and strange like they usually are."

Luffy straightens suddenly at the admonishment and grins with a look so deeply mischievous, Zoro immediately regrets saying anything at all. The captain almost knocks the kitchen doors off its hinges in his haste to find the sniper, Sanji cursing after him, and not a minute had passed before both swordsman and cook could hear Usopp roaring for Luffy to get _out_ of his workshop. 

-

Nearly a week had passed before Zoro again found himself puzzling over the sniper, and what it would be like to come together. Perspectives were switched this time around, Zolu towering over the sniper and resting a protective hand on his shoulder. The circumstances were much different as well, Luffy and Zoro coming together for reasons less amicable than a jaunt through the dangerous port city they'd docked at. 

Bounties high enough their faces had gained notoriety through wanted posters posted across the sea, Nami suggested Luffy and Zoro travel as one. Though tall, well muscled and imposing, Zolu's face favored neither pirate, scars changing his features in a fascinating way that felt familiar to the Straw Hats and made him nearly invisible with a black bandana tied over his dark, forest green hair. He possessed a gravitas and an air of power that made even his comrades hush somewhat in his presence. None more so than Usopp.

"Come with me," Zolu had said, pinprick, dark eyes resting on Usopp as he shouldered a pack of gold for the exchange. Usopp immediately noted his going or staying behind was not up for debate and went to gather a map and his own supply pack. Sanji followed after him, already rattling off a list of thing he needed while Robin politely gave Usopp a written list. 

The fusion wouldn't admit it, but he was several times more likely to get lost than if Zoro and Luffy went off on their own. Usopp had plenty of disguises he could use, but more so than that, Zolu was soft on him in ways the sniper could never know. Both hearts that made Zolu who he was enjoyed Usopp's company.

"Ready," the boy said, uncertain but taking after the captain and first mate as ordered. He stumbled with surprise as a massive, scarred hand fell to his head and roughed up his hair, and gave Zolu a much happier grin at the fusion's quiet reassurance. 

"Let's go!"

-

He hadn't needed to intervene, but Zolu's innate desire to protect and keep his crew members safe was like multiplying a thousand to itself and adding several tons of devotion on top of that. Usopp was his sniper, his nakama, his family, his friend. Overhearing the hint of a threat from a crude vendor made Zolu's temper spike and a vein throb and he stepped behind Usopp near silently, though the weight of his hand on the younger man's shoulder made the tension melt away immediately.

"I'm fine. Just getting the last of these supplies, Sir," Usopp says quietly, not wanting to draw more attention to them than Zolu's imposing presence already did. The fusion hadn't stopped staring down the merchant since he'd sidled up behind Usopp and pressed a hand to his shoulder, a hand that now slipped to his arm and squeezed as reassuringly as a rough grip could. Usopp looked up at him then, a grateful smile on him that made the older man's heart warm up and falter strangely all at once as Usopp collected Robin's book and the correct change he'd originally been refused.

-

Zolu and Usopp walked side by side, the fusion's strides long and lazy, following just behind Usopp's quicker pace. 

"Thanks for that, back there...Called him out on trying to rip me off but he had a weapon under the table, I could tell. You're scarier than a flint-lock though, Captain."

"I guess I am," Zolu mused aloud, reaching out to rest a hand on Usopp's head as they walked. The sniper slowed a bit to match the man's stride, smiling up at him with a bit of a shine to his eyes. Zolu knew that look. Usopp looked at Zoro and Luffy like that all the time, whenever they did anything particularly incredible. He was the kind of friend who celebrated the people he cared about freely. 

"Usopp, do you like being with us?"

Without missing a beat, the sniper grinned and nodded, hefting the supplies about in his arms more comfortably. 

"You're two of my favorite people in the world mixed into a big, strong, shit-at-directions Captain."

It earned him a none-to-gentle shove but both fusion and sniper laughed raucously, comfortably, and then the ship was in their sights. 

"We like being with you too," Zolu said after a few moments of quiet. Usopp hesitated, but finally looked up at the man, gaze curious and surprised. 

It was the same look he'd given Zoro a week ago, and suddenly, the fusion understood something his swordsman side hadn’t been able to parse on its own.

"We all hold pieces of each other," Zolu says, staring out at the water with those pinprick irises, his hand ruffling gently through Usopp's curls. "Being together is being home, no matter where the seas take us."

A slight tremor in the boy beside him makes him glance down, but Usopp was smiling that big grin of his and looking out over the water to where the ship was docked, his eyes only slightly gleaming.

"Well said, Captain. I'll try to think of that if I ever lose my way and need to find a path to you all again."

"Good," Zolu sighed, yawning heavily and clapping Usopp's shoulder before making his way down the pier. “Though of all of us, little Zoro's the one most likely to lose his way."

-

One night later, Zoro finds Lusop asleep in the captain's hammock, and it's enough for him to guess what had happened. Those two had a penchant for nodding off together, even three years later. Zoro dared say Lusop enjoyed a nap just as much as he did, though being slighter and smaller of stature, the kid found prime spots to sleep without being interrupted. It was Chopper who often found him, Usopp and Luffy having nodded off while fishing and fused into one curly haired, tan boy covered in scars and sporting a third eye just under his bangs. When he wasn't asleep, Lusop was being an absolute menace or delight to the crew, appearing the most during parties and celebrations, or when the two boys wanted to make mischief and sneak off to explore. 

Lusop wasn't afraid of anything, but he was sensible, and sly, Usopp's mind taking care of Luffy's strength as both made merry together. 

Of everyone, he was one of the most stable fusions Zoro could think of, and he smiled despite himself, dragging fingers through soft, dark curls to wake him.

"C'mon, guys, it's Usopp's turn for the watch. You gotta let him go, Luffy."

Lusop turns his face into Zoro's palm and stretches, groaning softly before finally opening all three of his eyes. 

"I don't want to leave," he whispered, sounding forlorn enough a part deep down inside of Zoro almost wanted to let the fusion keep sleeping so the boys could stay together, but he quirked a brow instead, weariness winning out.

Lusop stood reluctantly, swaying where he stood for a moment before leaning suddenly and without warning against the swordsman. Zoro held on impatiently and watched as the boy glowed faintly and a figure stepped out from Lusop and the two were separate again. Without the sniper to keep him on his feet, Luffy  sagged in Zoro's arms and went back to snoring. The swordsman sighed quietly, deposited Luffy into his hammock, and more or less tossed a blanket over him as Usopp helped straighten Luffy's legs out.

"Sorry, Zoro, I'll go to the crow's nest now, get some rest," the sniper whispers. Despite the grumbling to get up, Usopp looks well rested. His eyes are clear and the lines of his shoulders are steady, unlike Zoro's which were already starting to slump. Not for the first time, Zoro wonders why all the times he and Usopp shared hiding places for naps aboard the ship never resulted in them falling together, into one. 

Zolu had noticed something important on the dock the day before, and had tried to fix it without actually pointing out his suspicions, so Zoro reaches out his hand again, ruffling through Usopp's curls the way Zolu had. Usopp notices, it's in his gaze, a sudden widening and averting of the eyes. 

"You protect Luffy as much as he does you," Zoro says, and he's tired, but he hopes Usopp understands. "Your fusions are always like that. Loyal, watchful, stable, smarter.”

It’s an outstretched hand in spirit, a courtesy he’d been afforded for years, and gotten much too used to. Zoro should’ve reassured the boy instead of callously asking for an intimacy that spooked both of them for entirely different reasons, even though Zoro knew he was still grasping for a read on someone he knew frustratingly well. 

_I trust you so much I took for granted that trust has never come to you easy._

It’s what Zoro wants to say, but he can’t bring himself to. 

Zolu’s realization on the pier had been a simple one: of everyone in their crew, Zoro and Usopp struggled with putting down their guards the most these days, even if their struggles were opposite sides of the same coin. 

He pressed hands to Usopp’s shoulders, broader and stronger than they’d been on Water Seven, pushing back and leaning in to make sure the kid looked him in the eye. 

“If you need me…”

“I know that. You think I don’t know that?” Usopp interrupts quietly, reaching up to touch Zoro's wrists, but not the way he'd touched Zolu's. The sniper pulls them off his shoulders and pushes Zoro away, but it’s amicable, no heat to the light shove, and Zoro lets himself be moved. He doesn’t like the way Usopp smiles with a hint of something grim, reciprocating the half-finished offer: “If you need me…”

He gestures, like ‘you get the point’. Zoro nods once, curtly, and watches as Usopp mutters goodnight and leaves for the crow's nest. He can’t help but stare after the boy mutely and realizes, with mounting frustration, he may have made things worse.


	2. Chapter 2

Zosan only showed his face when there was enough blood in the water. 

A shark drawn to feeding frenzies is how Law once described him, the destruction left in Zosan’s wake as devastating as his allies’ victories. Each Straw Hat had their own way of regarding the advent of the second most powerful fusion within their family, the only fusion with his own dedicated bounty poster courtesy of the World Government, the fusion that meant a battle was either about to begin, or in most cases, about to _end_. He moved like a storm over the sea, wind and fire so feral Nami had wondered, watching him wreak havoc, if his strength could alter the oldest of Grand Line currents. Zosan was an urban legend to his crew almost as much as to enemies unlucky enough to cross him. Catastrophic, he appeared like a thunderous flash of lightning over the waters and vanished just as soon as his business was done. Sanji and Zoro would return to the Thousand Sunny with their bloody shoulders pressed together looking haunted, exhausted, and more than a little lovesick. 

It took time for them to take up their bickering and snarling once more, still punchdrunk off the other’s power and basking in the intense nature of their secret, mutual loyalty. While Zosan’s bounty poster described him as a monstrous, unstable, abomination of a fusion, the Straw Hats knew better; he was nakama, family, a guardian they could count on when danger was near. Sanji and Zoro's rivalry-turned-alliance. A trustworthy enigma. A Davey Jones legend in the making.

All of these things are why Usopp nearly has a heart-attack when he climbs down from the crow’s nest and finds Zosan standing wraithlike on deck, stock still except for the wind in his uneven crop of steely hair.

He...was watching the sun rise.

Usopp could tell his eye was bloodshot as ever, a cigarette dangling from his lips, and for the first time that Usopp remembered, the tall, brooding man wasn't drenched in seabrine or gore.

It occurred to the sniper that perhaps battle-bred Zosan had never seen the sun come up over a tranquil sea. 

Any panic at what approaching danger might've warranted Zosan's manifestation drained from Usopp's bones, leaving behind a strange melancholy that caused his brow to furrow and curiosity to take root in his chest. Even from across the Sunny's deck, this was the closest—and calmest—he'd ever seen the man.

_‘It’s because he was born for the vanguard,'_ Usopp thinks _,_ but the more he studies black-clad Zosan, his sharp jaw and cruel mouth looking gentler as the sun dawned across his face, the more he saw a man at peace in the ordinary. Familiar and strange all at the same time. 

The sniper thought it best to leave Zosan alone, so he slipped down the rest of the ladder as quietly as he could to avoid detection _._ Robin had next watch, and of the Straw Hats, Usopp knew she was the least likely to disturb the morning calm. 

But then he touched bootsole to wooden deck, looked over his shoulder, and couldn’t tear his gaze from the frightening, yet picturesque sight of the Straw Hats’ guardian demon. The Sun’s rays shone kindly over his beaten, tattered cloak, the bullet holes and pierced leather hanging off the jut of his shoulders, and Usopp noted keenly how the light caught on strands of hazel in his iron gray hair. Zosan stood with a strange gait neither Zoro nor Sanji’s, but there was a confidence and readiness there all the same. Arms clasped behind his back, he let the ash smoulder till it was blown away by the wind before dragging deep and exhaling a lazy plume of smoke to the sky. 

_‘The more I put off the watch, the longer he can watch the sunrise,’_ Usopp reasons with himself, tilting his head and wondering for the first time if Zosan preferred cooking or sleeping, swords to legs. ‘ _Maybe he just likes peace and quiet in the early morning. He doesn’t smoke as elegantly as Sanji and his scars are different from Zoro’s, but still…’_

“I can hear you thinking.”

Usopp stops dead in his tracks, a hand clenching reflexively at the ladder rung. Zosan had yet to move, still gazing out over the ocean, but the hoarse rasp of his voice carried easily over the breeze. “…Do I frighten you?”

It doesn’t even occur to Usopp to lie. 

“Sometimes. But not today. Today I wanted you to see the sun come up.”

Now, Zosan looks at him, the tilt of his head telling despite how impassive his expression remained. He’s got an eye scarred shut and brows that curve and a single bead of gold in each ear, but what Usopp finds most striking is the two dark irises watching him out of one single eye-socket. 

_‘Oh,’_ Usopp breathed, delight and excitement overtaking the last vestiges of his apprehension. _‘Zosan has an evil eye!’_

The grin that blooms across Usopp’s face is instinctive, but he hesitates, curious and timid. Always at war with himself. 

Zosan knows this because the hearts that form him know this, and his gaze softens much too imperceptibly for even Usopp to see.

“Then stay,” he rasps. “Watch the sun come up with me.”

It was just like the boy to go from hiding in the shadows of the Sunny’s furled sails to bounding across the deck, lightfooted and trusting. Usopp clears past Zosan’s form with a passing thought at just how _big_ the man is before leaping onto the Sunny’s bannister. He reaches out to steady himself with a hand pressing warm to Zosan’s shoulder and leans on him just a bit before whipping his gaze seaward once more. 

“What can you see?” Zosan asks, his voice a deep, rumbling tremor Usopp can feel rattling his bones. It is pleasant to the sniper, like the quake of a ship undocking from land and back into water. He looks and looks and looks and finds no end to the iridescent ripples of scales and fins under the smooth current in Sunny’s wake, so he describes them. Clouds part to reveal the spill of a rose-colored sky just starting to tinge blue—“A good day for sailing,” Zosan murmurs, going quiet once more to listen raptly as his sniper painted a portrait of the ocean as it existed in the moment: beautiful, untainted, clear, calm. 

Powerful. Always powerful.

“I knew, but did not know that the ocean could be…”

Usopp nods carefully, sensing that Zosan spoke of more than the ocean and her many faces.

“That is because you’ve only ever seen storm and battle.”

Zosan grunts, “I’ve only ever _been_ storm and battle.”

The melancholy, the ache again. Usopp carefully turns away from the waters, boots planted firmly on the bannister and his hand still loosely gripped at Zosan’s coat. 

_Born for the vangaurd? No._

“You should watch the sunrise more often. You should eat with us and dance with us and drink rum while watching the sunset. You should just _be_ , Zosan.”

The fusion stares back at him for a heartbeat and then he’s gone, Usopp’s handhold vanished into thin air, and the shock of it startles him entirely off balance. 

For a terrifying moment, Usopp is falling, but then a strong grip clenches his wrist, an arm clamps around his waist, and he’s hauled into the waiting arms of Zoro and Sanji who look at him punchdrunk. Lovesick. 

“Guys? Are you—was it something I said?” Usopp asks worriedly, confused even as he was gathered into their arms. To his back, Zoro grunted quietly, one arm still slung around Usopp’s waist. Sanji was pressed up against Usopp’s chest, mouth dragging over Zoro’s jaw, throat, the gold of his piercings. 

And then Sanji bent his head, tilted Usopp’s up, kissing him just as sweetly.

“It was _definitely_ something you said."


	3. Chapter 3

Honestly? Most of the Straw Hats forget Usopp has racked up a two-hundred million berry bounty because Usopp has _let them forget._

The formidable reward could leave a person living comfortably for the rest of their life and yet, in the company of exceptional bounties like Luffy’s and Zoro’s, Usopp was happy not to bring it up often these days. He vacillated between delighted and mortified over the sum, and it was hard to tell whether calling him “God Usopp” would flatter the sniper or make him hike his shoulders up and grumble. Out of Nami’s mouth it hit like a taunt, and yet Usopp looked like he’d won two-hundred million berries himself when Law casually mentioned the epitaph…unfortunately, the pleasant feeling had gone up in smoke a moment later as Usopp came to terms with the fact his _head on a platter_ was worth an exorbitant amount of money.

It was no wonder he got a little worried from time to time away from the Thousand Sunny’s safety.

“You’ll protect me, right, Zoro?” Usopp whispered anxiously, a hand fisting into Zoro’s cloak as he ducked his head under the swordsman’s palm and stayed there, like the weight of that hand could somehow shield him from the world. 

In reality, all he managed to do was startle the drinking swordsman into sloshing rum down his front, and the hand resting on his head twitched with the sudden flare of Zoro’s temper. 

“Long Nose," he grit out, voice low. "Pup eyes might work on the Cook but it _sure as hell_ won't work on me.”

The sniper slowly trailed said gaze from Zoro’s rumstained haramaki to the man’s dripping jaw and winced. "Can't blame me for trying.”

Lucky for Usopp, Zoro had also noticed the calculating, sidelong glances thrown his sniper’s way. It’s what made him slip his hand from Usopp's head to his nape, squeezing rough assurance. The hush that came over the bar patrons as they put Usopp’s prominent nose and Zoro’s three swords together was deafening in it’s own way as hunters and pirates alike came to a _conclusion._

The successful capture of two Straw Hat pirates was a guaranteed life of luxury.

It was a stupid conclusion, since you couldn't claim a bounty when you've been disembowled or shot between the eyes, but a conclusion nonetheless. Zoro sighed and wiped an arm over the rum at his chin. He was liquor-warm but nowhere near as drunk as he was hoping to get tonight.

“You gotta lose once in a while when you gamble or else people will notice the hustle and get angry,” Zoro murmured, glancing at the bag of gold clutched to Usopp’s chest. Full near to bursting, admittedly impressive. Usopp was a liar and a cheat but he didn’t need to resort to it against anyone but Nami these days. His eyes were just that good.

“I played fair,” the boy grumbled, already feeling bolder with the calloused palm at his neck. Zoro snorted softly. “You can’t _play fair_ with our kinda crowd, Usopp.”

"I know, but…”

The murmuring in the tavern had grown raucous again. Zoro almost laughed at how woebegone Usopp's expression became even as the swordsman's spirits lifted with anticipation, expectation. He enjoyed a drunken bar fight as much as the next pirate.

“Make this worth my time, Long Nose. How much is in the bag?”

Usopp hefted a single shoulder, lies forming on his tongue before he remembered he was trying to goad Zoro into being the hired brawn to his brains.

“About a thousand berry’s worth, give or take.”

Zoro lifted a brow. Usopp mumbling around gritted teeth like he didn’t want to admit it meant he was probably telling the truth. The swordsman smirked a bit despite himself at the sound of chairs skidding against wood; any companionable air about the room was gone. Zoro's grip at his sniper's nape grew tight once more before falling to a sword hilt warningly. 

"Next island we stop at with a decent tavern, you're buying top shelf. Deal?"

Usopp stiffened, aware of the gathering pirates at their back, and nodded, "Deal...You're _seriously_ starting to sound like Nami, though."

"Yeah, and you play poker like her, it is what it is," Zoro says with an air of finality as a proper scowl stretches across his face. He sets a boot down onto the wooden floor and turns, just enough his earrings glint softly in the lowlight. A dozen or so pirates were making something of a bedraggled half-moon around the two Straw Hats, while a heavy-set bruiser with a club for a weapon stood resolutely at the bar's only door.

Escaping without destroying the place was gonna take a little teamwork, a little finesse, no matter how much Usopp wanted to leave bouncer-duty to his crewmate. 

"You're packing heat, right?" Zoro asks, and he finally stands and stretches, rolls his neck till it cracks. He has the audacity to sound careless. Rum is still dripping down his chest but Zoro faces the jeering crowd flushed in the face and deadpan. Usopp, likely shaking at the hands, came to stand beside him, and Zoro could see the gleam of silver and polished wood past the loose collar of his shirt. Holstered against his ribs were two multibarrel flintlocks modified by the sniper for precision and a more efficient reload.

"A whole lot of us and just two of you," a voice jeered as Zoro and Usopp regarded the heckling bar patrons. Most were armed, all look stanced up for a brawl, and those who didn’t want to be involved had made hasty retreats back into the streets.

“Save yourself some trouble and throw us the runt, Roronoa," a man laughed, brandishing a cutlass that had seen better days. "Two-hundred million's enough for me and mine, I'm not greedy, and he looks easy enough to kill."

Usopp growled at that and chanced a bold step forward, but Zoro stayed him with a hand against his chest. A constant contradiction, the sniper was just as given to anger as he was to cowardice, and Zoro could feel how wildly Usopp’s heart throbbed beneath his palm. 

Rage? Fear? Both?

Always, always, always a paradox.

“Watch my back,” the swordsman murmurs soft enough only Usopp can hear. "Just until I clear us a path. I'll be right behind you."

Usopp's hands grow steadier at his first mate's order, imagining the pistols in his palms already as he frowned at the motley crew of pirates. Wasn't often Usopp used the flintlocks these days, more accustomed to Kuro Kabuto's heft and creativity, but that didn't mean he wasn't an ace shot regardless.

He had a moment to bemoan his choice to go drinking instead of shopping on the other side of town before Zoro unsheathed Shusui—he didn't need more than one blade—and chaos erupted in a space too small to contain it.

-

It should have been easy. It _had_ been easy up to a point, Zoro striding through the throng like a demon-eyed shadow wasting no movement taking down their attackers. A few well-placed slashes opened way for both Straw Hats, and the brute guarding the entrance fell heavily with two bullets lodged in his knees. Zoro didn’t even chance a look of thanks in Usopp’s direction, both first mate and sniper vaulting over the howling bruiser and into the night. But then the cacophany behind them had grown louder: tell-tale calls for reinforcements, a bold move considering how outclassed the bedraggled, tavern crew had been by Zoro’s sword. 

“Should've ended those miserable bastard _s_ for good when I had the chance," Zoro growled as he ran faster, urging Usopp onward with a light shove to his back. “Stay ahead of me, Long Nose, I don’t want them getting between us when the rest of their cronies start flooding the streets.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Usopp panted, pumping his legs faster to match Zoro’s long strides, then passing the swordsman entirely with a wary glance over his shoulder. Townspeople were scattering to make way for the growing throng of pirates on their tail, shouts of warning becoming terrified screams as bullets began crackling through the air. 

To Zoro’s mild surprise, Usopp didn’t join the screaming. In fact, he had the audacity to look unimpressed by the bullets scattering everwhere but their intended targets as both Straw Hats leapt and ducked through alleyways and cobbled streets. As if on cue, Zoro and Usopp flinched at the crash of a foodstall’s sign to the ground, rendered brittle by bullets and at least three throwing knives sticking out comically from the wood.

“Pathetic,” Usopp groaned, and Zoro couldn’t help an incredulous bark of laughter. “What, you wish there was a decent shot on your tail?” he taunted as he dug his boots into the cobblestone and swung around to face the mob. Usopp skidded to a stop beside him, adrenaline making his hands surgeon-steady at his flintlocks. Zoro drew Shusui alongside his Wado with frightening intent and grinned.

“Quit being smug and show 'em how it’s done, then."

The most wonderfully, mischevious smile bloomed across the boy’s face in answer and Zoro realized, chest lurching, he might’ve been drunker than he thought. 

Usopp fought scared, _but he fought_. And while Roronoa Zoro’s shadow struck fear wherever it went, Usopp drew courage from the ink of it beside his own. Zoro could see it in his soft, dark eyes before they tinged bloody at the edges and a pulse of haki made Zoro’s bones ring.

-

_“You’ll protect me, right?”_

The trust was heady, like strong liquor warming his belly and glowing in his chest. A welcomed salve over the uncertainty they’d been circling but refusing to touch ever since Sanji had dragged Usopp into their arms, and Zoro _held him there_.

Watching the quiet, intimate exchange with a wide eye and realizing it wasn’t the first time the men in his arms had kissed. Watching as instead of breaking the kiss, they’d fallen into each other and Zoro found himself burying his face into Sanuso’s back, feeling the slightest bit abandoned.

“Zoro,” the fusion had quipped, amused, as if the hearts that formed him hadn't been panting in Zoro's arms a moment before. “The wind carries our breaths Eastward today."

Sanuso paid attention to the wind. Wind stoked his fire, and wind guided his aim, but in that moment, Zoro was still consumed by a _want_ that made him graceless.

"I don't care about the wind," he'd muttered. The rise and fall of Sanuso's ribs under his palms was comforting, and Zoro pressed his forehead into the curve of the taller man's back. Sanuso’s heart beat was slower, steadier than Usopp’s nervous pace, but he still smelled distantly of gunpowder. Zoro held him close stubbornly, dragging a palm up to the man’s chest and pressing curiously against his heart beat. It was remarkable how drawn he felt to a person neither Cook nor Sniper and yet so entirely _them_ all the same. 

Sanuso leaned on him heavily and Zoro stood his ground without complaint, because it was easier to argue without the scrutiny of his eyes. "I don't care which way wind twists the currents. It’s all water and sky. A man doesn't need to understand any of it to love the sea, does he?”

For a long moment, Sanuso did not reply, looking out over the waters Zosan had been enjoying peacefully at dawn. But breakfast for the crew would need to be made soon. 

"We're pirates, not sharks, you idiot.”

Zoro grunted as Sanuso suddenly pivoted on a heel and knocked his brow to the swordsman's roughly, four eyes staring into Zoro's one. "The sea will kill us if we take her lightly. Breath is important. The wind is important. How else will we find our way to what we want the most?”

Zoro had been halfway through a snarl about not being spoken to like a child when the fusion gripped his jaw and kissed him, smiling against Zoro’s mouth as his snarl became a soft groan deep in his chest. It was only for a moment, chaste save for the sting of teeth, and then Sanuso dragged back with a satisfied hum. Zoro stared up at him panting roughly from surprise, bottom lip already beginning to swell. “Which one of ‘em—”

“Both,” Sanuso laughed, his smile as big and bright as Usopp’s and Sanji’s could possibly be. And then he’d shoved his hands into his pockets, sauntering towards the galley kitchen with a parting glance as if expecting Zoro to follow. “Come on, Moss Head, you hungry?”

-

Usopp steps towards the oncoming rush because he trusts his eyes and aim. He trusts in Zoro's presence at his back, and the cruel glint of his swords, and he trusts in the guns he raises aloft, because he knew their nomenclature like he knew his own mind. 

When he breathes to steady himself, Zoro is near enough he can feel the boy's inhale like his own, and Usopp’s haki ripples out like stone dropped into still water.

He exhales, and Zoro follows. He shoots, and Zoro feels the telltale tug of a nakama's heart on his own. A dreadful howling sounds after every smokey shot from Usopp's twin flintlocks, and Zoro feels the sniper's next inhale expand against his chest like furnace fire. Breath. Wind. Zoro was beginning to understand. Shared cigarettes, mouths pressed together, the mingling of breaths when sleeping beside another, when laughing heartily, brow to brow.

Breath, yes, and _trust_. 

The clatter of guns and rifles falling to cobblestone streets tell Zoro everything he needs to know as Usopp begins the tedious, but well-practiced task of reloading his flintlocks. The boy's eyes glint red and luminescent in the dark, and he gives Zoro a look that's hungry and fearless and tremulous all at the same time.

_Fuse with me_ , Zoro breathes, deep on the inside where his nakama can't hear him.

"Well done," he laughs instead, and then the Pirates are upon them, melee weapons swinging and slashing as they trampled their wounded with cruel disregard. Money hungry, emboldened by the numbers they had left, the riotous pirate gang was still no match for the Straw Hat's first mate as he cut throught the enemy left now that Usopp had shot holes through the gunners’ hands. The lack of crossfire made it easier for Zoro to focus as Usopp kept left, just out of his limited periphery but safe in the shadow of his first mate’s swords, and a realization hit Zoro with the clarity of a lightning bolt— _he’s looking after my blindside._

Zoro was used to being protector. The there-not there sensation of having a comrade standing between an enemy and his old wound touched on something profound in Zoro that made it almost unbearable to be parted from his sniper any longer.

_I want to breathe with him. I want to see with those eyes. I want him to know my strength as his own. But first…_

Zoro narrowed his eye at the sight of a pirate near the forefront bearing the ugly cutlass from the tavern—he’d managed to make it this far with only a bleeding cut across his cheek. 

_Something’s off._

“Sunny. Now,” Zoro ordered, as he pressed a boot to the last straggler's chest and hauled his Wado free with a wet _shluk._ Usopp didn't argue, but he didn't obey either, scraping back a step, then another.

“Zoro,” the boy murmured nervously. “He’s different.”

“I said _get out of here_ , Long-Nose.”

The warning came a moment too late. The pirate before them was now two, the residual luminescent glow streaking behind them as the split fusion hurtled past Zoro and towards Usopp with a determination to target the weakest link. They wielded two different sorts blade in equal states of neglect and had patches demarcating their crew and rank stitched into their sleeves, but Zoro could tell the older of the two carried himself more dangerously.

Enraged, Zoro denied them as he struck the older man’s falchion aside and swung his second sword in an arc that severed the younger pirate's hand from his wrist so neatly there was a delay between the wound and the scream. He used the momentum to veer towards the second pirate who'd ignored his crewmate's plight in favor of chasing after Usopp as the sniper ran breakneck towards the docks.

_Now,_ Usopp was yelling. 

Zoro took after them both, boots pounding heavy on the creaking wood of the dock.

"Ammo, I'm outta ammo!" Usopp hollered as he ran, and Zoro nearly ground his teeth to dust then and there—of _course._ It wasn’t easy to shove down the spike of his temper, but Zoro kept his eye trained on the raggedy flap of the older pirate's coat as Usopp scrambled aroound an alley corner. His boots skid and he nearly fell, but it worked out to his advantage as the enemy pirate swung his blade dangerously overhead. 

“Missed!” Usopp exclaimed incredulously, more for Zoro’s peace of mind than his own relief as he clambered back to his feet. The first mate had already closed the distance, and the next swing of the older man’s sword clashed down on Shusui with a terrible _crack_. 

Still, the rusty blade refused to break.

“How about it, Roronoa? Your sniper’s skilled eyes for my little brother's hand,” the pirate grinned, arms trembling with the strain of guarding against Shusui’s heavy weight. “He wouldn’t make much of a marskman anymore though, would he?”

“You talk too much for someone about to die,” Zoro spat, and with as hard a burst he could muster, whirled both swords in a violent arc.

_Nitoryu: 72 Pound Phoenix!_

If a structure or three creaked and splintered under the assault of such an attack, well, Zoro would just have to wrestle the gold off of Usopp later and leave it atop of the rubble. The shopkeepers could find it in the morning. Now, Zoro stalked through splintered wood and narrowed his eye while the dust settled, sheathing his Wado but keeping Shusui in hand.

They’d dragged the skirmish to the very of the edge of the port town, looming shadows of ships dark and unforgiving while the Thousand Sunny drifted placidly in the distance.

Zoro came to a halt over the fallen pirate and his brows hiked up at the fact the man was still breathing. Still remarkably rusty, the man’s blade had been knocked aside and embedded deep into the wooden dock, and Zoro empathized with the derision Usopp felt towards the gun-wielding pirates. They couldn’t land a proper shot, and the brothers who’d given them chase fought with swords so tarnished they looked more _infectious_ than sharp. Zoro spat near the man’s boots and sneered. “If you live, stick to a bounty in your league next time, old man.”

What happened next took less than a minute to transpire. 

The repurcussions would linger for some time after that.

Awet cough, a full-body shudder, and the pirate at Zoro’s feet grinned around the blood in his mouth: “We did.”

Zoro’s heart seized as he grasped the veiled threat and veered about in a one-eighty with the same breath, Shusui’s trajectory coming to a halt inches away from Usopp’s terrified expression. 

“I told you to run,” Zoro whispers, jaw clenched hard enough to crack at the sight of his sniper with a rusty cutlass to his neck. The freshly maimed younger brother had taken advantage of the chaos to rejoin the fray, cutting a ragged stripe across Usopp’s shoulder that looked shallow—a warning wound. 

“I don’t even care about the bounty anymore,” Cutlass snarled, hauling Usopp nearer with what was left of his bleeding arm and jostling the blade at his throat. “I’m gonna kill him, and you’re going to _watch_ for what you did to me, you _bastard_ —”

The tirade was cut short as Usopp cracked an elbow into the man’s side, lifted a pistol, and took a shot all in the same motion. For a long time to come, Zoro would swear he felt the bullet’s breeze against his cheek as he gutted Cutlass open where Usopp had stood only a second before.Only then did Zoro hear the crumple of a second body to the planks.

“Usopp,” Zoro murmured. The sniper was trembling, a second cut blooming fresh blood over his ribs as the cut to his shoulder dripped freely, but he gave Zoro a weary thumbs-up. Behind him, Cutlass drew his final breath while Falchion groaned weakly where he lay. He’d tried one last stab at the swordsman while Zoro’s back was turned. A resilient old bastard, not that it mattered anymore. Zoro noted the bullet wound in Falchion’s chest— _ah—_ and touched knuckles to Usopp’s scraped jaw. 

“I thought you ran out of bullets.”

“I lied.”

_Of course._

Zoro snorted, then promptly stomped a boot onto Falchion’s wound.

"What was that about my sniper being easy to kill?” the first mate snarled, a terrifying grin baring his teeth, his lone eye bloodshot with liquor and rage. Usopp watched on in silence, willing his hands to stop shaking as he holstered his pistols carefully. He’d taken twelve shots tonight: four kneecapped pirates, seven howling at the bullets in their hands, and one breathing harshly as Zoro dug a boot heel into the wound inches away from the gasping pirate's heart. It bled badly as Shusui rose cruel and dark over the man’s expression like a promise.

_’He would come this close to killing for me,'_ Zoro thinks wildly of his sniper, feral with anger, infuriated that the boy would scar in two places over a shot Zoro forced him to make. He’d been careless. The thought made his fist clench harder around the hilt of his blade and if it weren’t for Usopp’s hand at his sleeve, Zoro would have stabbed Falchion through the throat there and then.

“Give it a rest with the scary face, Zoro, I’m tired.”

Somewhere beneath them, Falchion sputtered incredulously. Zoro dug his boot into the wound just a bit harder and flicked an eye over to his friend. Usopp did look worse for the wear, blood streaming from the cut over his shoulder, but it was messier than it was deep. What concerned Zoro more was the red blossoming over Usopp's shirt as the boy felt at his side carefully.

“I should have been faster.”

Usopp snorts, glancing down at himself. “We've both seen worse.”

“I fucked up," Zoro bit out, sounding gruff before he averted his gaze and grimaced. "Want me to kill him?"

“No! No, Zoro, you're really drunk, aren't you?" Usopp hissed, gripping at the man's sword-bearing arm and failing to move it an inch no matter how hard he tugged. "Come on, man, what do you want me to say? I got cocky playing cards and got us into trouble? Just forget it and come back to the ship. We'll have to stash the gold though, I can already hear Nami chewing us out for property damage…”

“Y-yeah, go back to the ship, I won’t be any more trouble,” Falchion wheezed, and Usopp threw the man a withering glare. “You’ll be lucky to see morning, asshole.” He looked back at Zoro, whose expression had gone from demonic to resigned in the span of a minute. 

With all the long suffering in the world, Zoro sighed. Then he spat a wad inches away from the downed pirate’s face and cracked Shusui's hilt against the man’s temple. 

“ _‘Easy to kill’_ my ass,” Zoro muttered, stepping over the unconscious pirate and stalking towards the docks. He'd be lucky if he saw the sun rise indeed. “I need another drink...Come on, Long Nose."

"You're more pissed off about that than I am," Usopp noted as he sighed in relief and skipped a bit faster to match Zoro's stride. He was breathing hard and grimacing against the pain, but he kept up without complaint. "Those pirates were just talking smack. I would know.”

"Well it worked— _twice_ ," Zoro snapped over a shoulder, causing Usopp to fall silent and look away flightily. Immediately, a pang of guilt flushed hot in the swordsman's chest. He kept walking despite it, glowering straight ahead to where the Sunny was anchored at the end of the port. The rest of the Straw Hats had either heard the ruckus and reconvened at the ship or would be returning soon regardless due to the late hour.

"Usopp."

"Yeah, yeah, I owe you a week's worth of rum—"

“Why the _hell_ would you take a shot like that?”

An uncharacteristically stunned silence fell over the younger pirate. Usopp's steps faltered before starting up again, albeit slower, like he was dragging his boots. 

Then, softly, “Zoro, I swear, I would _never_ hit you by mistake—”

“That isn’t what I meant. You know that’s not what I meant.”

Zoro bristled angrily and grunted, annoyed at the prospect of having to explain himself. Tension was written in every hard line of his shoulders as he walked. He was angry Usopp was hurt. He was angry Usopp had used his last bullet to protect Zoro instead of himself. He was angry because he didn’t _need_ that kind of protection. “Don’t ask me to play guard dog then a pull stupid stunt like that, you hear me?”

“Then don’t ask me to watch your back and get mad when I do!” Usopp retorted before pressing a hand to his side with a hiss. Zoro looked at him, worry making his anger simmer down a fraction, but the boy stubbornly refused his offered hand. 

“I don’t care where I get my scars,” Usoppmumbled, looking everywhere but Zoro and nearly stomping as he walked. “It doesn’t matter to me. But the thought of some piece of shit touching Zoro’s back with a sword that ugly…”

Usopp dark eyes were troubled as he grimaced. “It isn’t right.”

Outwardly, Zoro said nothing as he slowed his pace, bent a shoulder, and finally coaxed Usopp to clamber onto his back.

"Gonna stain," he warned in a grumble, but Zoro couldn't care less. Usopp was warm and pleasantly heavy, his heart beat a steady rhythm that promised the boy would be okay. His arms wound about Zoro’s neck and he buried his face into Zoro’s cloak, breathing deeply and finding a comfort in the heat that burned off Zoro’s body after a fight.

“Don’t fall asleep, Usopp, I’m not done chewing you out.”

“I think I’ve come down with ‘Napping during lectures’ disease,” Usopp muttered in deadpan response, and Zoro jostled him slightly.

“That’s called fainting, Long Nose. You’ve lost blood.”

“Brave warriors of the sea don’t faint!”

“Then listen,” Zoro said, as gently as he could while maintaining a firm edge to his voice. It was a skill he’d mastered with Chopper and Usopp underfoot for so many years. “You’ve heard it said ‘wounds on the back are a swordsman’s shame’, but that’s my credo to bear, no one else’s. Understood?”

Usopp had fallen silent in his arms, but Zoro felt the slight nod against his nape.

_Good man_. 

“I’d be a shit first mate if I let my nakama get hurt over my ideals. I want to be World’s Greatest Swordsman, but not at the expense of my friends. Tch, what a lonely summit that would be…”

Usopp gripped at him tighter and said nothing, but Zoro sighed at the telltale trembling in his arms. 

“Don’t cry, kid. I’m not angry anymore, I swear.”

“I’m not crying,” Usopp lied, voice muffled into Zoro’s cloak. “I just…you _felt_ it, right? Just for a second I coulda’ sworn you felt what I felt and for the _first damn time_ I really, really thought it was possible.”

Fusion. 

Time seemed to slow. Perhaps it was only Zoro’s steps over the docks and his breaths blowing eastward and his heartbeat answering the uncertainty in Usopp’s heart through synchronicity. 

“Yes,” Zoro says, and both sniper and swordsman exhale together. “ _But I’ve always known_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your kind comments and patience.


End file.
